Finke: Tax hikes or cuts? That’s the question

Saturday

Mar 29, 2014 at 9:49 PM

Doug Finke of the Springfield State Journal-Register

We don’t know the outcome of this yet, but if the General Assembly votes to make the temporary income tax hike permanent, can we forever retire the phrase “temporary tax increase” from the state’s political vocabulary?

However you feel about the need, or lack thereof, of making the income tax increase permanent, you have to give Gov. Pat Quinn credit for at least one thing: He’s given political analysts material to debate for who knows how long.

How many major party candidates for governor call for an income tax vote in an election year? Especially when a poll released the same week shows 60 percent of voters against making the temporary increase permanent. It’s not the standard dodge and weave we’ve come to expect from candidates.

Will Quinn’s straight talking, as he is calling it, enable him to win another term? Or will pundits forever debate whether Quinn cost himself the election by calling for continuation of an unpopular income tax increase?

Alas, it’s going to be several long months before we will know.

Seeking real news

By the way, that poll which showed most voters opposed to making the tax hike permanent also showed voters had no real taste for cutting the budget to make up for the lost revenue.

In category after category — education, public safety, aid to the poor — a majority said they didn’t want to see cuts in that area. Most thought the billions in lost revenue could be made up by eliminating waste and fraud.

It can’t. No one, but no one has identified anywhere close to that amount of waste and fraud. If you hear a candidate claim that is the solution, demand that the person specifically identify where and how much fraud and waste they’ve identified.

If one comes up with the $4 billion or so that will be needed in a couple of years, contact us. That would be a major news story.

Quinn vs. Edgar

In his budget speech last week, Quinn drew a comparison between himself and former Gov. Jim Edgar.

It was because Quinn’s budget proposal calls for property tax relief to be part of the deal where the income tax increase is made permanent. Quinn said Illinois has underfunded schools and, consequently, overburdened property taxpayers who supply most of the money for schools. Quinn likened his proposal to Edgar’s 1997 plan to swap higher income taxes for lower property taxes.

Whether you buy that comparison, it was an interesting choice for Quinn. Edgar’s plan ultimately went nowhere. Presumably, Quinn hopes his plan doesn’t experience the same outcome.

However, in 1990, when Edgar first ran for governor, his platform included a call to make permanent what had been at the time another temporary income tax increase. His Democratic opponent was against the idea. Edgar, of course, won.

You’d think Quinn would use that example if he’s going to compare himself to Edgar.

She said what?

> “He was saying things that make my little heart go pitter-patter. I think he finally got it. I don’t know about the rest of these guys.” Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, giving Quinn generally high marks for his budget speech.

> “It would take a few years to do. Anything else would be such a shock to the system. Think of the government as a human body. It would be like a heart attack. No aspirin involved. I mean, kaboom. That would not be good.” — Topinka, explaining why phasing out the income tax hike would be better than letting it expire all at once.

> “There are a lot of promises that get thrown around down here. We have to start learning how to keep them. This is one.” — Topinka, saying the income tax increase should expire, although not all at once.

Doug Finke covers Illinois politics for the Springfield State Journal-Register. He can be reached at (217) 788-1527. His email is doug.finke@sj-r.com. Follow him at twitter.com/DougFinkeSJR.